just_ann_now has written a new story. in the Swordspoint verse. How Richard met Alec, and what came after. It's a first time fic, and a first night, which means this fic is not for the kiddies. But neither is it for people who are looking for a PWP or anything too explicit. Somehow Ann walks that line I am never quite able to toe: explicit in the sense of not fading to black, but never graphic - I don't think she actually describes anything beyond a kiss - while still managing to be incredibly erotic.

More than that, she has completely nailed Alec's voice. The abandonment. The shyness laced with defiance. Richard's, too, but Alec here is precisely how I imagine him in my head.

All in all, a very nice read. Those of you who like this fandom are missing out if you don't give it a read.

http://community.livejournal.com/_riverside/65085.html

( Read more... )

This picture is the footer over at the FB page for Lord of the Rings: War in the North (a video game). Any guess who/what the guy with the glowy staff is supposed to be? The only thing I can think is Radagast, which would just be wrong. Ideas?

This week is banned book week, and apparently Lord of the Rings is on the list. That... amuses me, and leaves me feeling confuzzled. What's so objectionable about Tolkien?

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

In honor, I encourage everyone reading this to post the passage that you think would get it banned. What countercultural, challenging to the PTB but inspiring to the rest of us bit of Tolkien do you think would put it on such a list? (Other Tolkien books welcome as well.) And please leave me a link in the comments section, so I don't miss it.

I'm up late (or early) because I can't sleep again. Probably not the best time for blogging, I know. But rabidsamfan has a pretty interesting poll going on and I wanted to get my thoughts down. Do go vote in that poll, btw, if you haven't already.

RSF asked whether we ever cry at our old fic. My first thought was that she meant she read an old story and it was so bad, she was literally reduced to tears. I'm often ashamed of my old stuf, but never that much. Turns out though she meant something else entirely. Are we ever reduced to tears by the sad or dramatic or whatever stuff that we wrote?

I've often described my fanfic-writing like journalism. See, I have this really involved world playing out like a movie in my mind. There are some corners that are really well imagined and other corners that I haven't discovered all the details. But it's all there to be discovered. And it's all a reflection of me because ultimately "my" world is a reflection of my own self. I think about something, some theme or even some sensation, and somewhere there is a character that jumps up and it's obvious that this character's experience is pertinent to what I'm thinking about. But I don't dream up the story; it's just there. The trick is finding a POV, a snippet that I can unravel enough so it's not just reality but there's an actual narrative to it, a plot structure that functions as literature. In many ways, my private fantasy world which is the backdrop for my fanfic is more "real" than reality. More potent, closer to the ideal than the messy world with all of its frustrating details that can get in the way of a good story.

Why shouldn't I cry at that? My stories are snippets of a world that I hope has more pathos than reality because the details I am aware of are the ones that matter to the issue I want to work with. And I cry at the news, at the horrible things people do to each other. In a very weird way I care about my characters. Yeah, I know they're not alive, I'm not crazy or anything, but in a very real sense they are alive to me. Sometimes more alive than actual people I know in RL.

Incidentally, this is why it's so hard for me to write longer-length pieces. Think about that scene in The Hours where Ed Harris's character talks about trying to capture all the details of a single moment in time. It's impossible, and developing a larger story-arc is that much more impossible. It already feels like I am reducing the situation, to mention this detail and not that one. Fanfic for me isn't constructive, it's reductive, and at a certain point it no longer captures even the basics of my world. It's not laziness. There's a reason why my stories are usually less than 5,000 words and are the results of months of mental percolation, until they basically write themselves.

So to answer RSF's question: of course I cry over my stories if they're sad. They are in many ways more real than reality, at least to me.

Over at LJ, mraltariel wrote chess!fic. A five-drabble series featuring Denethor, Faramir, a smidgen of Gandalf, and of course the game of kings. Highly recommended.

Five Moves that Denethor and Faramir Never Made

I've been watching old episodes of The Closer in a spurt of last-of-summer freedom tonight. In this case it's a downloaded version of the third season, which ends with two double-episode sets - a Christmas, and the season finale about the murder of a lawyer (it's a rare episode where the case actually goes to trial). In downloaded form these episode sets are 12-13 and 14-15, respectively.

The thing is, the timeline gets a bit screwy here. It's at the end of the season finale that Brenda agrees to put hers and her affianced's house on the market. This is a major plot point - it's a mark of trust in their future that Brenda is finally willing to make this step. The Christmas special begins with a real estate broker showing their house, which would suggest that the Christmas special is set after the season finale, chronologically. It was also broadcast last. I can see why the download would order the season finale last, since it makes the most emotional sense of that season's characterization arcs and so on.

Only... not so much. The Christmas special has a scene where Brenda has to get a suspect drunk. Fritz objects to this because the suspect has a history of substance abuse (both drug and alcohol), but Brenda decides to go on with the drinking since they are trying to prevent a future crime and need information out of them. What struck me was Brenda's and Fritz's interaction over the booze. If she already knew that Fritz was a recovering alcoholic (revealed in the season episode) then she's being incredibly callous. She might still decide to go on with the plan, but I don't think even she would brush off his concerns. I also think Fritz would be much more upset with her than he was. Fritz can get upset quite well; in that episode he's given Brenda the evil eye over how much money she is spending carelessly, lying to her dad, and even over not helping him load their suitcases into the RV.

I know, this is a little thing, and I probably shouldn't complain. Still, the timeline issue irks me. It left me scratching my head on how to situate things in my mind.

As I've mentioned, this month I was invited to write the biography for the Silmarillion Writers Guild. That bio is now available here:

Marta's SWG Biography of Sauron

In honor of the Akallabeth in August theme I chose to look at Sauron's backstory. Most people know him as the arch-villain of The Lord of the Rings, and he is of course that character, but he also has a really interesting backstory in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. So I looked at what some of those stories tell us about him. Thanks to Dawn Felagund for the help copy-editing this.

For the interested, here are some of my other stories dealing with Sauron and Sauron's affects on others:

1. "Ea" - ft. Sauron + Celebrimbor, Second Age Eregion
   
2. "Fire and Smoke - ft. OC Numenoreans, last days of Numenor
   
3. "The Gift of Men" - Tar-Miriel's POV, last days of Numenor
   
4. "King's Men" - OC Easterling, Second Age
   
5. "Respite" - Khamul's POV, late third age

Saw the newest HP movie this afternoon. I have promised myself not to indulge in the many thinky thoughts bouncing around my head until I finish my SWG bio, but three things need to be said outright:

1. kudos to the studio for treating this like part II - not a sequel. I loved how much it was just a continuation of the last movie.

2. the epilogue apparently feels like a tag-on of the worst sort to me, whether it was in print or film. I still wish they had cut off after the battle, and maybe used the time to develop the aftermath a bit more.

3. GO NEVILLE! I was fighting whooping out loud at points. Seriously, that's my boy! Er, man, now.

( cut for spoilers )

More soon. Hopefully.